All the great college basketball stories this weekend were pushed to the back when Oklahoma State guard Marcus Smart, a top NBA draft prospect, shoved a Texas Tech fan.

Smart received a three-game suspension from the Big 12 on Sunday, a significant penalty for him and a blow to an OSU team fighting to find its way in conference play.

No one earned a letter of distinction in Lubbock, Texas, on Saturday night. Not Smart, not Tech fan Jeff Orr, not the refs, and not Oklahoma State coach Travis Ford, who refused to criticize his player in the postgame news conference, mumbling something vague about how he was still looking into it.

Ford did much better at the Sunday news conference after the penalty had been announced and Smart had issued an apology. "This was a serious mistake, but Marcus has an opportunity to learn from this," Ford said. "We all can learn from this."

Ford declined to get into what was said between Orr, who has been trying to rile opposing players for years, and Smart. "We're not here to put blame on anybody other than Marcus made a mistake and feels terrible about it," Ford said.

Of course, so did Orr -- his triumphant smile after the shove said it all -- but he won't be held accountable the way a 19-year-old basketball player will. ESPN's Jay Bilas suggested on Twitter that if Orr is a booster or represents the school's interests, how much responsibility does Texas Tech have for what took place?

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Tech is conducting its own investigation of an incident on what should have been a wonderful night for Red Raiders basketball in a rarely sold-out arena. Orr reportedly volunteered Sunday not to attend Tech games for the rest of the season. That seems like a good idea.

Regardless of what Orr said -- he denied using a racial slur -- players can't be excused for charging into the stands. At the same time, we all need to lose this notion that fans paid their money so they can behave however they want. That's never been the case, and it isn't today.

"Fans nowadays are closer to the court than they've ever been," Ford said.

And I still cringe when those fans rush the court, as they did Saturday night at SMU after an upset of No. 7 Cincinnati. It was a wonderful moment for Mustangs fans, but what if a miserable Cincinnati player had been taunted by beer-fueled frat boys charging past him after the game?

I'm the only one here who can see that sort of thing ending badly?

Ford said he didn't think about getting Smart off the court before the game ended (somehow officials assessed him only a technical foul, not an ejection). When Tech fans rushed the court after their team's win, Ford said he became "immensely" concerned but added, "Texas Tech security did a great job, and the security we travel with did a great job."

In the end, this will be The Shove Heard Round the World. Smart will get maximum exposure of the kind no player seeks. And the chances of a similar occurrence or something even worse happening in the near future have been reduced dramatically.